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Magic:
The Gathering - Battlegrounds
Score: 7.9 / 10
Magic: The Gathering has been around for over ten years and has been
growing bigger and bigger all that time. It is the most successful niche
product in the hobby world, a fact that hasn't escaped the attention of
Hasbro, which bought the company that owned Magic, Wizards of the Coast,
mainly because of another license, Pokemon, and have been pleasantly
surprised at the performance of M:TG. The continued success of Magic
pretty much guaranteed a move into the video game market, and, under
Hasbro, Wizards has been much more aggressive in pursuit of that
lucrative sector. Recently, that has led to a very successful online
implementation of the card game itself and, now, a foray into real-time
strategy. Magic: The Gathering Battlegrounds is a stripped-down
real-time strategy game that takes its presentation and pacing from the
realm of
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game.
Cosmetically, the game looks just like a 2D/Pseudo 3D fighting game,
except for a glowing line that divides the battlefield into two halves.
The battlefield does not scroll at all, so the room for maneuvering is
very limited. Instead of using his or her character to bludgeon the
opponent (either controlled by the computer or by a human opponent), the
player instead rapidly fires off spells from those available to him or
her. Most of these spells either summon creatures to do battle in the
name of the wizard, do something to enhance the power of controllers
creatures, or do something to damage or weaken the creatures controlled
by the opponent.
Players are asked to pick a discipline at the beginning of the game.
Like the card game, there are five different schools of magic in the
game: black, white, red, green, and blue. Each color has its own focus
and set of spells, and as far as I was able to tell, they seem quite
balanced. It is important to play each color with a different style, but
once the appropriate strategy is discovered the five colors all match up
pretty well.
Both duelists begin with twenty life points. Summoned creatures try to
cross the screen and damage the opposing wizard, but stop and fight with
the opponent's creatures when possible. Some creatures are blockers only
and others are designed to give benefits when they die. Regardless, the
goal is to use these creatures to reduce the opposing wizard to zero
life points.
The interface is simple and intuitive, making it easy to scroll through
available spells and get off the right one at the right time. Despite
this, the pace of the game is hectic, and the game can be really
daunting to newcomers. Heck, even some of the tutorial levels require
perfect timing and performance to clear. Still, once players are
familiar with each of the spells and comfortable with the controls,
spectacular butt kickings ensue.
The graphics are well-designed, with inspiration coming directly from
the art of the card game. Like a fighting game, the engine here has
little to test the power of the Xbox, so lots of cycles are left over
for sharp, alias-free renderings of the wizards and their minions. The
non-creature spell effects aren't over-the-top or spectacular, but they
do make good use of particle effects and colored lighting and never
obscure the battlefield in a way that would be distracting. Final
Fantasy style flights of fancy just wouldn't work in this environment.
The creature design, lifted straight from M:TG is cool. I've always
liked how Magic's creature design lifted from many of the standard
sources (D&D, Tolkien, Lieber, etc) while maintaining a left-of-center
aesthetic and Battlegrounds keeps up this tradition. The black mana
creatures especially are odd and brutal looking.
The single-player game basically involves a series of duels and the A.I.
can get a bit predictable. The game really shines, however,
multi-player, either face-to-face or online. Human opponents can really
wreck havoc with some odd strategies and the game becomes very creative
and dynamic when played head-to-head. Battlegrounds can really get the
adrenaline pumping with its fast pace and with the fact that most
matches really go down to the wire (even the A.I. matches which seem to
contain a bit of rubberbanding, though that might have only been my
perception).
Any way you cut it, Battlegrounds is a unique, chaotic experience and
one that is worthy of a purchase if you are a fan of the card game and
at least a rental otherwise.
- Tolen Dante
(March 14, 2004)
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